'Shit! This was not supposed to happen. What do I do now?'

Layla got out of the kid's fall before he could fall on top of her and crush her. The kid would have hit his head on the ground if the investigator had not moved fast and managed to grab the kid on time.

"Fuck! What the hell happened? What did you do to make him lose consciousness this fast?"

The investigator asked in an annoyed voice as he held the child tighter. He was also disturbed by how incredibly light the young child was and how easily he could pick him up.

"Don't fault me. I have no idea why Austin lost consciousness, either. I did not even use any great force when I cornered him. Maybe the stress got to him or something."

Layla had no idea what happened and did not even want to know what happened.

The detective gave Layla a dirty look that clearly said he did not trust her or her words. Thankfully, he did not question her and allowed Layla to do whatever she wanted without question.

"Let's go catch up with Mary. I feel she would be done with her target by now."

Since the detective pretended to be watching Layla, she had no problem keeping her mask of innocence up, either. She did not look at the detective when she walked away from him.

In the end, the detective had no choice but to follow after Layla with a suspicious look on his face and a kid in his hands.

The pair found Mary holding up and knocked out Sally near where they were.

The maid gave her mistress a cheerful look as she waved her arms happily.

"Young Miss, I got you a gift. This rat was trying to make a run for it, but thankfully, I caught her before she could get away. What should we do with her? Should we wait for her comrades also to show up so we can catch her red-handed?"

Mary asked as she pulled Sally over.

The half-conscious maid finally realized that she had been tricked all this time, and her secret had already been revealed.

"N-No! Kill me! Haven't I humiliated your side too much? It would be better for you all to kill me than to let me live."

The maid yelled with her chest held high.

She was trying to irritate her opponents into killing her so that a distress signal could go out to her side.

Sally would lose her life, but the people in the Supremist Party would stay alive. And that was the greatest wish she had.

Unfortunately, her opponents were not as dumb as she hoped. Layla's blank look told Sally that she was not interested.

"Mary, I will leave Sally up to you. We should head back and report what happened to the Duke now. He will deal with the aftermath."

As much as Layla wanted to take responsibility and punish Sally and her people, she had to consider where she could profit most. And as much as she hated to say it, the Duke was her best choice.

"Sure thing, Miss!"

Mary picked up the half-dead maid in her grip before she started to walk back. They both had forgotten all about the detective, so he followed them back with an awkward expression.

...

Every time Layla's eyes fell on Duke Lockhart, she could not help but feel her heart skip a bat in fear.

She knew she had nothing to fear, but the Duke had been an overbearing figure in the original story, and he had the aura to boost.

"Master, we have a rat for you. You might want to look into this situation. You will get an incredible gift that will make you happy."

Mary cheerfully spoke as soon as she put the unconscious Sally down. The detective did the same with Austin, and the Duke looked at the pair with an impassive but bored face.

"I see. I will take a look into this. Layla, you will be duly compensated for what happened and your achievements. Think of what you want and leave me a message like last time."

The Duke's monotonous voice made it impossible to tell what he was thinking at the moment.

Layla bowed as gracefully as her six-year-old body would allow her to, and she watched as the Duke finally left.

She breathed out a sigh of relief as she was left alone, and Henry was the first one to comment.

"You managed to catch Austin and his maid. Are you going to ask the Duke permission to deal with them yourself? I want to ask you to go easy on Austin. He is just a kid. I am sure he did what he did under his maid's influence…"

Henry tried to take advantage of the situation to show that he was a good leader who thought of everyone and even forgave those who had wronged him.

He asked Layla to reconsider her thoughts, and his voice sounded sincere.

Unfortunately, he was speaking to someone who had no interest in listening to him.

"Sorry, but I am not interested in such petty things. I have no intention of asking the Duke to hand over this case to me when I can get something much better from his favor. And before you ask, I have no obligation to tell you anymore."

Layla did not directly ask Henry to 'shut up,' but her words carried that energy.

Henry looked at Layla with narrowed eyes, and his unhappiness shined through. Layla knew he had a huge role to play in what had happened.

But in front of so many people, there was no way he would speak to her about any of this. Henry had an image to maintain and skeletons to hide.

"I see. If that is the case, I guess there is no point in asking you to forgive Austin. I will go and talk with Duke Lockhart instead."